This story was updated at 2:48 p.m. on May 5 to include a statement from a State Department spokesman<\/p>\n
The State Department is finalizing layoffs for hundreds of employees who have been on paid administrative leave for nearly a year and have been kept from returning to their jobs.<\/p>\n
The department told nearly 250 Foreign Service employees and about 30 civil service employees\u00a0on Tuesday that they have been officially separated from their jobs after receiving reduction-in-force notices last summer.\u00a0 Last month, the State Department rolled out a recruitment campaign to join the Foreign Service.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIn April 2025, the secretary determined the department would undertake a reorganization in line with broader efforts to streamline government functions, eliminate redundancy, and enhance accountability, including through a reduction in force. Your reduction in force separation will be effective today, Tuesday, May 5,\u201d the department told employees in a notice obtained by Federal News Network. \u201cThank you again for your service to the department.\u201d<\/p>\n Three laid-off Foreign Service employees recently told Federal News Network that the finalized layoffs were imminent. The American Foreign Service Association confirmed in a statement Tuesday<\/a> that the State Department has finalized the layoffs.<\/p>\n ]]><\/p>\n \u201cThe department has never adequately explained why it is removing experienced Foreign Service professionals with critical skills while simultaneously hiring new personnel. This is not sound workforce planning. It is a disruption to the career diplomatic corps at a moment when the country can least afford it,\u201d AFSA said.<\/p>\n AFSA President John Dinkleman received a RIF notice last summer after the State Department eliminated its Diplomats in Residence program.\u00a0<\/a>He is among the hundreds of former employees who received a separation notice on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cMy thoughts are with the scores of individuals who are in much more vulnerable situations, who are just days away from being eligible to retire, and who are being basically chopped off at the knees professionally. They\u2019re having their entire situation upended and threatened. It\u2019s really terrible,\u201d Dinkleman said in an interview.<\/p>\n State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement that the department\u2019s RIFs \u201cwere the most complex and tailored in federal government history,\u201d and were conducted as part of a major reorganization. <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThese were thoughtfully designed to facilitate a more efficient, faster, and effective America First diplomacy,\u201d Pigott said.<\/p>\n In July 2025, the State Department\u00a0sent layoff notices to nearly 1,350 employees<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 mostly civil service employees permanently based in the United States. The Foreign Service employees who received RIF notices were temporarily serving in domestic posts.<\/p>\n According to impacted employees, the State Department was waiting to see whether Congress would include additional layoff protections in a recently passed spending bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security<\/a>, except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n ]]><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all a mystery what State has been doing and why, and they have not communicated with us at all,\u201d one laid-off Foreign Service officer said.<\/p>\n The State Department\u00a0sought to finalize its Foreign Service RIFs<\/a>\u00a0last December, but a\u00a0federal judge in San Francisco<\/a> put those plans on hold. Congress gave agencies a\u00a0three-month reprieve from layoffs<\/a>, as part of a stopgap funding bill that ended last year\u2019s 43-day government shutdown.<\/p>\n Most agencies rescinded the RIF notices they sent during last year\u2019s shutdown. But a federal district court judge\u00a0ruled in January<\/a>\u00a0that the State Department didn\u2019t have to rescind its RIF notices, after she determined that those layoffs fell outside the layoff protections provided by Congress.<\/p>\n In March, Under Secretary for Management Jason Evans repeatedly told lawmakers<\/a> on the House Foreign Affairs Committee that laid-off employees will not be eligible to compete for vacant positions.<\/p>\n Democrats on the committee urged the State Department to consider rehiring laid-off diplomats or to allow them to compete for vacancies. Lawmakers said these personnel are needed for the department to meet its diplomatic mission amid several international conflicts.<\/p>\n Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said during the March 18 hearing that these laid-off Foreign Service officers already hold security clearances and have years of on-the-job experience.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are people the department invested in language training, graduate degrees, years of field experience, and yet the department is now hiring new Foreign Service officers and contractors to fill vacancies \u2014 positions that will require tens of thousands of dollars in training,\u201d Castro said.<\/p>\n Dinkleman said that since the U.S. began military strikes in Iran began in February, the State Department has had \u201chundreds of individuals who were still on the payroll, with top-secret clearances, sitting in their homes \u2014 who had Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and every other language under their belt, with consular training, emergency crisis management training \u2014 who could have simply been put on the phones to answer questions, and who would have willingly done so.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOut of some sense, I think, of not wanting to appear that they had made a mistake, they essentially made us all pariahs within the organization that we have devoted our lives to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n ]]><\/p>\n A second Foreign Service officer who received a RIF notice last summer told Federal News Network that the State Department is currently accepting applications to fill his exact role. The department\u2019s notice on USAJobs states that it has \u201cMANY vacancies\u201d it\u2019s looking to fill.<\/p>\n \u201cYet again, another egregious slap to the face,\u201d the employee said.<\/p>\n Despite the State Department\u2019s recruiting push, the Foreign Service doesn\u2019t plan on hiring above its rate of attrition.<\/p>\n The department\u2019s fiscal 2027\u00a0budget justification\u00a0<\/a>shows that it plans to keep shrinking its workforce. According to the budget document, the State Department plans to have about 11,000 Foreign Service employees and 6,000 civil service employees next year.<\/p>\n Before the Trump administration, the State Department had more than 14,000 Foreign Service employees and nearly 13,000 civil service employees.<\/p>\n Upcoming changes to federal employee assessments may push out more Foreign Service officers. Evans told the House Foreign Affairs Committee<\/a> that the Foreign Service will resume \u201clow-ranking\u201d employees, a practice in which personnel who don\u2019t meet certain performance evaluation criteria are recommended for removal.<\/p>\n